The Babylonian Exile

You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.

But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.

You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.

You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times.

And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”

Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

“Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”

Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment.

Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.

As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.